Consumer Behaviour
CHAPTER 1: Understanding Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour= totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition,
consumption, and disposition of goods, services, time, and ideas by human decision-making
units (over time). Offering= A product, service, activity, experience, or idea offered by a
marketing organization to consumers.
Marketers are intensely interested in consumer behaviour related to using and disposing of a
product, not just the way that consumers make acquisition decisions. Also about personal
finances. Acquisition= the process by which a consumer comes to own an offering. After
consumers acquire an offering, they use it. Usage= the process by which a consumer uses
an offering. Disposition= the process by which a consumer discards an offering. Consumer’s
don’t always do a good job of managing money. Consumer behaviour also affects decisions
about managing debt. When consumers feel powerful and in control of their resources, they
will put more money in the bank in order to maintain that state of power. The sequence
acquisition, usage, and disposition can occur over time in a dynamic order. Entire markets
are designed around linking one consumer’s disposition decision to other consumers’
acquisition decisions. Environmental attitudes and actions are changing, thus marketers
must take into account consumers’ goals and priorities, perceptions of brands, and internal
processes when planning marketing efforts. Consumer behaviour does not necessarily
reflect the action of a single individual. Individuals engaging in consumer behaviour can take
on one or more roles.
Consumer behaviour also involves understanding whether, why, when, where, how, how
much, how often, and for how long consumers will buy, use, or dispose of an offering.
Whether → they may need to decide whether to spend or save money when they earn extra
cash. How much they decide to spend may be influenced by their perceptions of how much
they recall spending in the past. These decisions are often related to personal goals, safety
concerns, or a desire to reduce economic, social, or psychological risk. Can also be affected
by subtle cues in our environment. Self-control is an important factor.
What → we make choices among product or service categories, choose between brands.
Our choices multiply daily as marketers introduce new products, sizes, and packages.
Why → consumption can occur for a number of reasons. Most important reasons are the
ways in which an offering meets someone’s needs, values, or goals. May be related to
consumer’s attitudes toward money, materialism, status, emotions, and self-control.
Why not → buying may be delayed, unable to do so. Ethics and social responsibility can play
a role. Transparency is increasingly of concern!
How to → Acquisition: buying / trading / renting or leasing / bartering / gifting / finding /
stealing / sharing or borrowing. Usage: marketers want to ensure that their offering is used
correctly. Using can include what we use with the offering as well as how we store and
organize the items. Disposing: find new use for it / get rid of it temporarily / permanently.
When to → many factors, including perceptions of and attitudes toward time itself. Our need
for variety can affect when we acquire, use, dispose of an offering. Also affected by knowing
when others might. Also when an improved version of product is out. Even the first letter of
our last name has an impact on when we acquire an offering. (WHERE TO)
How much/often/long → in general, consumer don’t like wasting things, and will consider
whether they are buying more of a product than what they will use. Usage decisions can vary
widely from person to person and from culture to culture. Sales of a product can be
increased when consumer (1) uses larger amounts of product, (2) uses product more
frequently, and (3) uses it for longer periods of time. Some consumers experience problems
because they engage more than they should.
,Consumer behaviour involves emotions and coping. Positive and negative emotions as well
as specific emotions and general moods can affect how consumers think, the choices they
make, how they feel after making a decision, what they remember, and how much they enjoy
an experience. Consumers often use products to regulate their feelings.
The factors that affect decisions can be classified into four domains: (1) psychological core,
(2) process of making decisions, (3) consumer’s culture, and (4) consumer behaviour
outcomes. Each domain is related to all the others.
(1) Psychological core (internal consumer processes) → motivation, ability, and opportunity
(MOA); exposure, attention, perception, and comprehension; memory and knowledge; and
attitudes (formation) about an offering and change.
(2) Process of making decisions → problem recognition and information search; making
judgments and decisions; and making post-decision evaluation.
(3) Consumer’s culture(=typical or expected behaviours, norms, and ideas that characterize
a group of people) → social influences on consumer behaviour (reference group= group of
people consumers compare themselves with for information regarding behaviour, attitudes,
or values); consumer diversity; household and social class influences; psychographics
(values, personality, and lifestyles).
(4) Consumer behaviour (outcomes and issues) → innovations (adoption, resistance, and
diffusion); symbolic consumer behaviour (symbols= external sigs that consumers use to
express their identity); and marketing, ethics, and social responsibility in today’s consumer
society.
Four different groups who use consumer research: marketing managers + ethicists and
advocates + public policy makers and regulators + consumers. Marketing= the activity, set of
institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings
with value for individuals, groups and society.
Marketing managers – need consumer behaviour insights to understand what consumers
and clients value; only then can they develop, communicate, and deliver appropriate goods
and services.
Ethicists and advocates – marketers’ actions sometimes raise important ethical questions.
Create public awareness of inappropriate practices.
Public policy makers and regulators – crucial to understand consumer behaviour in
developing policies and rules to protect them from unfair, unsafe, or inappropriate marketing
practices.
Academics – (1) disseminate knowledge when they teach courses on the subject and (2)
generate knowledge when they conduct research focusing on consumers.
Consumers and society – tools for decision-making. Can pave the way for programs that
benefit society.
In general, consumer research helps marketers to develop product-specific plans, as well as
broader strategies for market segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and to make
decisions about the components of the marketing mix.
Developing and implementing customer-oriented strategy → Marketing is designed to
provide value to customers! What one consumer values in a product may not be the same as
what another consumer values. Consumer research can help marketers identify consumers
who have needs that are not being met and can reveal the size and profitability of each
segment. After determining how the market is segmented and whether it is potentially
,profitable, marketers need to learn about the characteristics of consumers in each segment.
Learn whether consumers are currently satisfied with offerings and marketing.
Selecting the target market → Understanding consumer behaviour helps marketers
determine which consumer groups are appropriate targets for marketing tactics and how
heavy users of a product differ from light users. Marketers also need to identify who is likely
to be involved.
Developing products → First, marketers need to design an offering that matches consumers
wants. Marketers often use research to determine when an dhow to modify or tailor product
to meet needs of new or existing consumers. Research also plays a vital role in decisions
about choosing a brand and differentiating it from competing brands and from other brands in
the company’s product portfolio. Many marketers use consumer research when making
decisions about packaging and logos.
Positioning → The desired image should reflect what the product is and how it differs from
the competition. See how consumers view other brands in comparison and plot it in
perceptual map. To understand what image a new offering should have and what messages
will effectively support this image. The positioning should suggest that the product is superior
in one or more attributes values by the target market. Repositioning.
Making promotion and marketing communications decisions → Advertising, sales promotions
(premiums, contests, sweepstakes, free samples, coupons, and rebates), personal selling,
and public relations. Consumer research can be very useful in determining advertising
objectives. Can help marketers determine what words and visuals would be most effective.
Demographic, lifestyle, and media usage data. Marketers are choosing media with better
targeting or more consumer exposure in mind. Research may reveal seasonal variations in
purchases. Advertisers can research an ad’s effectiveness at various points in the
advertising development process (copy testing or pretesting). Identify sales promotion
objectives and tactics. See whether sales promotions have been effective. Research can
help managers make decisions about salespeople, how they can best serve customers.
Making pricing decisions → Very important to know how consumers react to price and to use
this in pricing decisions. Too low of a price can make consumers suspect the product’s
quality. Be aware of reference prices. Consumers have differing perceptions of product
worth, depending on whether they are selling or buying it (endowment effect: overestimate).
Consumers have different views of the importance of price, thus different sensitiveness.
Making distribution decisions → Marketers who understand the value consumers place on
time and convenience have developed distribution channels that allow consumers to acquire
or use offerings whenever and wherever it is most convenient for them. What do customers
want to see in stores? How should stores be designed?
COLLEGE 12/09/2019
Consumer behaviour is about social marketing: social perspective to help people, it is not the
aim to get profit, but change behaviour. Making the world a better place.
• High vs Low effort
• System 2 vs System 1
• Central vs Peripheral route
• Slow, deliberative, and conscious vs Fast, automatic, and unconscious
, Psychological core & Process of making decision & Consumer’s culture & Consumer
behaviour.
Social Marketing Challenge → Marketing is about fulfilling needs and wants of people in the
marketplace. Marketing tools can also be used to help resolve societal problems and to
benefit society – social marketing. There are many societal issues/problems that marketing
could help with (such as drug abuse, homophobia, no drunk driving, plastic soup). A key
element is motivation, we need to understand one’s motivation for behaviour to be able to
change it. There are loads of theories to help understand motivation (such as Maslow).
Essentially: develop a social marketing campaign to help resolve societal problems / change
problematic behaviour.
Step 1: Find and agree on a concrete social cause / issue / problem that’s worthy of your
effort. Step 2: Find as much information on the internet about that cause as you can find.
Present your cause and information and discuss work of other subgroups.
1-- Social Marketing Plan: 1. Describe the social issue/cause/problem. 2. Describe
organization focusing on this issue. 3. Define target group and analyse problem from
academic / consumer behaviour point of view using theory. Focus on motivation! 4. Choose
and describe the strategies you’re going to employ to change the behaviour. 5. Develop
social marketing campaign using marketing communication tools to influence/change the
problematic behaviour.
2-- Pechakucha: 20x20 presentation, 20 slides of each 20 seconds. Presenter has no control
over the speed of the presentation, each slide is set to 20 seconds in advance. Total= 6 min
40 sec.
Naïve theories about persuasion: implications for information processing and consumer
attitude change; by Brinol et al (2015)
Consumers have knowledge about persuasion that includes naïve theories about persuasion. Two
studies are presented: one that manipulates and another that measures naïve theories related to the
meaning of persuasion. The meaning associated with persuasion is found to play a significant role in
influencing the amount of message elaboration that consumers engage in.
Consumers are bombarded by attempts to persuade them on a daily basis. Persuasion
attempts are a ubiquitous part of our culture. Persuasion has permeated so many aspects of
people’s lives that researchers have suggested people come to develop persuasion
knowledge concerning how persuasion operates. People may hold naïve theories about the
meaning of persuasion as something both good and bad. Personal attitudes toward
advertising likely play a crucial role in influencing consumers’ exposure and attention to
advertisements, political and regulatory activities.
Much of people’s social environment involves persuasive attempts more generally.
Individuals’ naïve theories about the meaning of persuasion, whether manipulated or
measured, can ultimately affect how people respond to persuasive attempts. Consumers
may hold different meanings of associations to persuasion. Through exposure to it,
consumers develop beliefs about how it operates and works. Consumers hold beliefs as to
whether a particular tactic is acceptable. Different naïve theories about persuasion can affect
how people respond to persuasion attempts. People scoring high in scepticism tend to
perceive advertising as deceptive and untruthful. Scepticism and general beliefs might not be
equivalent. People can hold – meanings with persuasion, but + that recognize its value.
